Planning Your Family with Future Vision

It's been striking to hear two women in the last 8 days tell me that they would have more children, but their husbands "are done." To be quite honest, this is a very confusing statement to me. Both families have 2 young children, and one family has a much older child from the husband's first marriage. Both seem from the outside to be financially sound enough to support another child, or even two more children. Both are Christian families who most likely understand the eternal impact of having another child. Personally, I've gone through a metamorphosis, of sorts, when it comes to family size. I was never, ever going to have children. I never dreamed, as young person, of having babies and cooing over them, buying them cute clothes and doing the whole "mom" thing. I was so determined in my career path that it would not have been convenient, nor wanted. However, as I grew into my late 20's, and married a man worth having children with, my heart softened (and my biological clock started ticking), and I very, very much wanted children. Then, to add to the desire, I started working for an organization where Natural Family Planning was taught, mostly from a Catholic perspective, which I studied closely. I was introduced to families that have 5, 9, even 10 children. Families of this size are rarely heard of in our times, and because of that, these parents often are asked very rude questions and fathers are accused of being sex addicts (really, think about it...if they have 10 children, there's really not much time for sex. Honestly.). But as I learned the beauty of natural family planning and the constant dialogue about family size that is necessary, due to the uncontracepted nature of the marital relationship, I began to realize that many children isn't a burden, but a legacy. A blessing. To be quite frank, raising the two children I have right now takes more physical and emotional strenth than I possess most days. For quite some time, I was certain that I was NOT cut out for motherhood, but even so, I look at my family with 20-30-40 vision. What is this vision, you ask? In 20 years, I will have an almost-23-year old son and an almost 21-year-old son, and, God-willing another one or two, and they will be coming home from college or from jobs and they will be getting married and I want to have a full house at Christmastime. I want to have a full dinnertable, football games in the backyard, and so many people sleeping at our house for Spring break that they have to camp out on the floor of the basement. I do want more children. Sure, there's a small part of me that thinks it would be nice to be done with pregnancy and childbirth now that I have my token two children. But that would only be for the sake of convenience. And it would not be the way I want things to be in 30 years when my boys are married and having babies. And it would not be the way I want things to be in 40 years when I'm attending my grandbabies baseball games, band concerts, and high school graduations. That's 20-30-40 vision. One last component: Who plans our family sizes? Do we? Or do we allow the God who told Abraham he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore? Abraham was the father of nations. He listened to God and was blessed. Granted, I don't think God wants every family to have 10 children. But I wonder what would happen if we did allow him to speak into the planning component of our families. I wonder how lives would be changed; how people would be blessed in ways they wouldn't have been otherwise. Souls would exist who wouldn't have. That's a powerful statement. This is serious business. Souls. Eternity. Legacy. I don't think we realize the powerful potential we really do hold within our bodies and within our marriages.